When We Can't be Heard
by StephIsInsanity
Summary: When Santana is Kicked Out of Her House She Finds Herself Living at School, Until One Night Shelby Comes Back, Finds Her, and Offers Her a Place to Stay. Will Be Sheltana Pairing.


**I don't even know where I'm going with this, so please bear with me.**

**Disclaimer: I Own Nothing. However I've Heard the Lion!Quinn Owns Everything the Light Touches.. And Lion!Quinn Belongs to Zooks.**

**So Yeah, Here we go.**

Santana was hanging around Shelby's choir room after school Thursday afternoon while Shelby was giving Sugar those extra singing lessons she so desperately needed, and while Shelby didn't mind the extra company she thought it was odd. So when Sugar decided to go on a water break to the school's cafeteria, Shelby decided to see why the other girl was hanging around.

"My mom had an appointment this afternoon and she said she'd be late picking me up." Santana answered

Shelby nodded and turned to the board where she was rewriting the scales Sugar was supposed to be studying. When the lesson was over Sugar immediately sped out the door without so much a goodbye, Shelby asked Santana if she wanted her to wait with her until Santana's mother arrived but Santana politely declined the offer. Shelby gathered up her things and said good bye to Santana before leaving.

Santana watched out the window waited until she saw Shelby walk out of the front of the school she unlocked the supply closet in the back of the room and pulled out a sleeping bag and her laptop computer and sat at one of the desks in the room and began to do her homework. Santana had been living here for about 2 weeks, ever since her parents told her she was no longer welcome in their home. She had made friends with one of the night janitors, Ted, and he would split the dinner his wife packed for him with her each night, and leave the girls locker room unlocked in the morning for her to take a shower. There was a small washer and dryer in the locker room that she did her laundry in. She had gotten a weekend job at a local mini mart and she'd been using that money to pay for lunch, laundry soap, and pop tarts for breakfast. She knew she couldn't stay here much longer or someone, other than the night janitor, was bound to find out. But for now Santana wasn't worried about that, however the English homework Shelby had assigned was a different story she had no idea how to interpret poetry, Santana pulled the elastic from her hair, releasing it from its high pony, it was going to be a long night.

Santana awoke to someone shaking her arm, she rubbed her eye's looking at the clock on her computer it was 8:30 the night janitor didn't usually make it to her floor for at least another 15 minutes. Panic set in as Santana looked up to see, not the friendly face of Ted, but the concerned look of her show choir director.

"I- look- don't worry about me" Santana said, picking up her laptop and crossing the room. She shoved the computer into its case and put it back into the closet.

"I can't not worry about you Santana, I come back to the school almost 5 hours after the last extracurricular ended to find you still here" she looked around the room and noticed Santana's sleeping bag on the floor. "Santana, are you living here?" she asked, looking, if possible, even more concerned then she did before.

"I- No, yes. I mean I guess so my parents told me that I'm no longer welcome in their home and I didn't really have anywhere else to go my abuela won't speak to me, and I can't stay at Britt's cause her mom doesn't have any room for me because that Irish kid is living with them now. So I've just been staying here, I made friends with some of the night staff and I know I can't stay here forever but it's fine for now."

"Santana" Shelby said in an attempt to get the girl to look at her "Would you like to come stay with me? I can turn Beth's playroom into a make shift bedroom for you."

"Are you sure? I mean don't you have enough teenagers in your house, what with Puck and Quinn coming to see Beth and I'm sure Rachel comes by too. Do you really-"

"I wouldn't have made you the offer if I wasn't sure about it." If Shelby was completely honest with herself she wasn't at all sure about the offer she had just made. Not only did she not have anywhere to put the girl until she got her a bed but she also knew nothing about what it was like to have a teenager in the house on a full time basis.

Just then the choir room door opened and Ted walked in "Meg packed chicken salad tonight, I remembered you saying last week that it's you're birthday today and I know its your favourite-" he paused as he looked up from the bag to see Shelby in the room as well. "I guess you won't be staying for dinner tonight?" he asked Santana.

Santana shook her head "I'm sorry"

He smiled at her "Don't be, I'm happy that you're going to be staying somewhere nicer than this school, its going to be getting cold soon and we don't run the heat here at night, do you want some help getting your stuff together?"

"No thanks, there's not much, I think I can handle it"

"Okay, you have a goodnight then" he turned to leave "oh, I almost forgot" he reached into the bag and pulled out a pre-packaged cupcake "Happy birthday Santana" he said as he handed her the snack cake.

"Thank you" she said smiling she took the cupcake and put it in her bag then she moved across the room where she rolled the sleeping bag up and stuck it into the closet. She grabbed two bags full of clothes and other things and her computer bag. Shelby reached over and took one of the bags from Santana tossing it over her shoulder.

The ride to Shelby's was one filled mostly with silence, they had tossed Santana's things in the back seat of Shelby's ranger rover, which was one of the only things she kept from her vocal adrenaline days, and then gotten into the car, Santana knew that Shelby couldn't possibly live to far from the school and she was right, about twenty minutes later they arrived at Shelby's apartment complex. Shelby lived on the second floor about halfway down the hall she unlocked the apartment and entered the apartment, she motioned for Santana to follow.

"Come on in, put your stuff down wherever." Shelby said

Santana did as she was told she put her things down just inside the doorway and looked around, she noticed the TV was on and someone was on the couch watching it, she was about to ask Shelby who the woman was when she got up and turned off the TV.

"Thanks for watching Beth" Shelby thanked the woman, Santana was guessing this woman was in her late 50's to early 60's.

"Don't mention it" the woman smiled "but I thought you said you were going to pick up your phone that you left in the classroom, and you came back with a teenage girl."

Shelby laughed "Well its kind of complicated, I did go to pick up my phone" she pulled her iPhone out of her pocket showing it to the woman "and I found one of my students still in the building, this is Santana, she's going to be staying with me for a while, Santana this is Mrs. Watson she lives in the apartment next door"

The woman shook Santana's hand and told her it was nice to meet her before saying goodnight to Shelby.

Once Shelby closed the door she walked over to where Santana had decided to sit on the arm of the couch.

"Okay so let me give you a quick tour"

Santana followed as Shelby showed her the Kitchen area, where the bathroom was, which room would become hers after they got her a bed this weekend, the room with the closed door was obviously Beth's, the last room they got to was Shelby's as she flipped on the lights Santana looked around. The room was definitely Shelby, there was a Queen size bed centered on the left wall, a dresser across from it on the right wall there were a few pictures of Beth on the nightstand and up on the wall there were four pictures, with a trophy underneath each one, Santana knew those were Shelby's trophies from her four consecutive wins at nationals.

She looked to find Shelby digging through her closet and she absentmindedly sat down on the bed, which to someone who'd been sleeping on the floor for 2 weeks, was much more comfortable than it looked she laid back on the bed feeling her eyes close shut.

Shelby emerged from the closet "there should be room for you to put your stuff for the time being-" she stopped when she saw the girl asleep.

Shelby carefully removed the girls shoes and moved the blankets from underneath her to cover her. She changed into her pajama's, and shut the lights before she climbed into bed.

The next morning Shelby awoke to find that Santana had, at some point during the night, attached herself to her. As she looked down at the girl she noticed that Santana's arm wasn't just draped over her, Santana had a tight grip on the corner of Shelby shirt, she also noticed that the look of calm that she had seen on the girls face the night before was replaced by a look that Shelby couldn't really describe. She thought about waking the girl but she didn't want to startle her so she instead ran a hand through Santana's hair hoping that somehow the girl would sense that she wasn't alone and didn't need to be afraid. Shelby watched as Santana relaxed and the grip on her shirt lessened she felt her breathing change and knew that Santana had woken up.

When Santana woke up she instantly realized the position she was in and she was about to pull away and apologize profusely until she felt Shelby's hand in her hair, Santana realized that she had probably noticed that she was having a nightmare and was trying to comfort her. Santana knew that Shelby had probably picked up on the changes in her breathing and knew she was awake but she hadn't stopped running her hand through her hair and Santana was content to just lay there for a few more minutes until they both had to get up and start the day.

**And Thus the First Chapter Comes to a Close, Let me Know What You Think About it (: **


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